Process of treating cotton-seed hulls.



v P. G. GRANT. PROCESS or TREATING GOTTON SEED HULLS.

APPLiOATI'ON FILED MAB. 7, 1908- Patented'Dec. 22, 1-908.

@Mmmw PETER e. GRANT,=OF nsnrrns, TENNESSEE,

ASSIGNOR TO DANIEL'GRAXT. Ol MEMPHIS.

, TENNESSEE.

' PROCESS OF TREATING co'r'ron-snnn HULLs.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 22, 1908.

Application filedlliarch 7 1908. Serial No. 419,749.

Be it known that I, PETER G. G ANT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Memphis, 'in the county 'of'Shelby and State of Tennessee,have invented new and useful Improvements in Processes of TreatingCotton- Seed Hull's, of Which the following is a speci- My inventionrelates to a process for disintegrating, agitating, and separatingvarious substances and particularly cotton seed hulls, from the lint orfiber with which they are'usually associated; the object of theinlivered through a chute, B, into one end of avent-ion being to.simplify and cheapen the known processes for treating cotton-seed ,hullsand to ehminat'e thc lint therefrom 111 a more expeditious, facile andeconomical manner, and to convert the substahce into bran and fiber, andsegregate these materials and collect them in separatereccptacles.

My invention consists of the process which Iw1ll hereinafter describeand claim.

In the accon'lpanyingv drawing: Figure 1 represents a part elevation andpart sectional view of one form of apparatus or group oi machines bywhich my process may be carried out. big, 2 shows a fragment of amodified part of the apparatus.

Referring to the drawing, Fig. 1, which, as before stated, isillustrative of one form of apparatus I may use to carry out my process,A represents any suitable and approved form of attrition mill, orgrinding machine, of which there are various types suitable formypurpose. Into this mill the hulls with the adl'ierent fiber aredelivered through a chute, a. After being subjected to a grinding actionof the mill, A, the ground product is de suitably inelosed beater, C,having a, perforate bottom, 10, and internal shaft, 12, with radialbeater-arms, 13. The ground-mass is thoroughly agitated. and beat n inthis machine, and the loosenedbranparticles of the are dischargedthrough the perforated 'bottoin an conveyed by a s out or chute C into asack or receiver, D, or carried away by any well known conveying meansto such a oint as may be desired. The remaining iiulls together with thelint or fiber adhering thereto are delivered from the beater through ithe chute, E, of a beater-casing into'the feedend of a cylinder, 1*,having an internal shaft,f

- 14, with radial beater-arms, 15, the inner cir. cuniference of saidcylinder being adapted to cooperate with the beater arms, 15, to eii'ecta disintegration of they material. This machine is designed to rub'thefiber from the bulls, and by a blast created through the ma chine by afan located outside of, or operable, j

in a case, 17, at one end, the l oosened iiberis blown through a pipe,18, to a haling room or other receiver, not shown. y The hard particlesof hull are delivered from the cylim-ler, F, through the screenedperipheral opening 20, in the side of the cylinder, and may be conductedbyia chute.- 2],in'to a suitable receiver, asin Fig. 2, and

thence conducted. to a separate grinding mill; but if desired, I maydischarge the hard particles of hull with whatever lint may remainadhering thereto throughxthe periphoral opening 20,'and into a suitablecase having a conveyor, 30, whichopcratcs in conncctitm with otherconveyors, 31 leading back to, the original grinding 'mill' whereby thesaid particles of hull and remaininglint \villzbe carried back to theoriginal grinding mill to be mixed with fresh liullsbeing i'cdv thereto.When the said hull particlesare carried to the fresh bulls and passedthrough the original grinding mill, the proccss becomes continuous untilthe hulls are converted into two parts, making what is known as hullbran and hull fiber.

I have discovered that cottoii-secd hulls having a cupshape tend tooffer little resist- I ance to a grinding )roccss and that tooverc-ome'this the small particlesof hulls after some fiber has beentaken off when dropping into the original hull, tend to till up theconcaved portion of the hull and form a mass of sufficient resistancetomaterially assist-the grinding at the primary attrition mill. By'niyprocess, thercfme, the hulls are subjected to the several operations.described, with the result that the iiber. is ex tracted through thedelivery chute or spout, 18, while the separated bran is collected inapropriate receiversa y my method of first grinding the hulls in anattrition mill, I reduce the size 'of the hard husky part and therebyenable the cylinder F, and its. components to 1nore easily perform theirwork. The purpose of' introducing the beater, G,'betwecn the attritionmill and the cylinder,'F, which beater, may represent any shaker orscreen, s'due to cylinder F, some fine particles of bran resulting fromthe grinding operation pass through the cylinder F, an are delivered bythe chute or spout 18, together with the fiber,

thereby making a bad quality 0 fiber.

I am aware that it is not ne to disintegrate and separate cotton-seedhulls by dehvering the hulls with the adherent fiber directly into oneof the cylinders. which is provided with internal beaters adapted to Idisintegrate the hulls and deliver the crushed chamber by which theloosened fibers aredischarged from the cylinder and delivered to apneumatic or other ty e of collector. I am further aware that it is oldto pass the hulls from one attrition mill through a beater which beatsout part of the bran produced by the grinding m the aforesaid mill, andthen conduct the residue to second, third,

. and succeeding attrition mills and. after grinding it in each of thesemills pass the material to corresponding heaters to remove more of thebran. The process last described is, however, areduction process pureand simple, as a part of the bran is removed after each grinding, andthe grinding continues until no bran remains. Such a process requires anenormous Waste of power or energy owing to the regrinding of the cottonor fiber each time,

In disintegrating cotton-seed hulls I have found from years ofexperience and experiment, that it is almost lmpossible to accomplishthe desired result without handling the product over and over againthereby reducing it. operation is in regrindin the cotton which isadhering to the hulls and therefore I iropose to improve the knownprocesses by su jecting the hulls to a preliminary rinding whereby thecotton is practically e iminated on the first grinding and that the onlysubsequent grinding is of the hull itself to take away the smallparticles of remaining cotton. In my process, I merely grind the hullsin an attrition mill or other grinding machine and then run this ground'mass through a beater or I believe the difficult part of the.

other machine which extracts such bran or finely ground particles ofhulls as are loosened up, and then taking the residue of the beater tothe cylinder F; or to any. suitable machine using an air. currentagainst gravity, to remove the lint or fiber, leaving the balance of theground mass in the form of a finished product of bran.

I Under my process there is no subsequent grindin The hulls are groundin the attrition mil there to grinding, the mass is subjected to aviolent agitation simply loosening up the ground mass and rubbin off thefiber which has been already loosener up b the grindin in the attritionmill. The filier is then ta ken out by the air current against gravityand the remainder bein 1 bran passes through the opening in the side ofthe cylinder F.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is: v a

1.- The process herein described for; continuously separating the lintfrom cottonseed hulls which consists in first (grinding the hulls, thenbeating the groun screening out a )ortion of the hull particles, thenagitating t e residue in the presence of an air blast against gravity,to separate a por- ,pxassed throu h the beater and from i t e fiber macine whereinstead off mass and tion of the freed lint, and then returningthe seed hulls which consists in first grinding the hulls, then beatingthe ground mass and screening out a portion of the hull particles, thenagitating the residue against rubbing surfaces in the presence of an airblast against gravity, to, separate a portion of the freed lint,- anc1then returning the remaining residue to be treated in the same cycle ofoperations.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

PETER G. GRANT.

Witnesses:

J. C. HONEY, Jr., M. RUTSCHMAN.

